The Phantom Empire (1935)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A lot of fun.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Gene Autry serial is an odd mix of Scifi and westerns. To be certain its more western then scifi, but its enough to keep scifi fans interested.The plot has an evil professor looking for radium trying to drive Gene Autry away from his ranch under which is buried a great amount of ore. Complicating things is the fact that under the ranch is a hidden kingdom.What should have been a standard western serial are lifted by the good cast that has Autry, his band of regulars as well as Frankie Darro and others. Is it be all and end all? no. Frankly if it hadn't been for Autry this probably would have been long forgotten, then again if it wasn't for this serial we never would have had Gene Autry as a leading man.Worth a look for those in a western scifi mood or for those wanting to reconnect with movie history. Personally I like the serial in a goofy retro sort of way but seeing it again for the first time in years I realized that I didn't need to see it again and after jumping through some chapters I gave up and moved on. Worth a look if you've never seen it. If you have, try something else.

Gene Autry was already a radio star when he went to Hollywood in the early '30s. Naturally, since Autry was known as "the Singing Cowboy," his first starring role was in a sci-fi serial about an underground civilization. One might think that this was a brave example of casting against type; in fact, Autry plays exactly the same character he would continue to play on film and TV for the next twenty years: "Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy."With a premise like this, one would expect THE PHANTOM EMPIRE to be thoroughly goofy. And one would be right. It doesn't help matters that the serial is directed exclusively to children, without even a nod or wink at the adult audience. Also, the cliffhanger cheat factor is fairly high, mostly involving added footage of the escapes which completely distorts what we saw in the previous chapter (this would, of course, have been somewhat less obvious when seeing only one chapter a week and not having a rewind button).But if you're a connoisseur of cinematic goofiness, or if you're interested in B-Westerns and SF serials of the 30s, or if you have a burning desire to see Smiley Burnette in drag, you should check this one out. The Alpha DVD release, as others have said, is pretty poor (the worst Alpha DVDs I've seen, in fact), but if you can get through the first two chapters, the quality improves marginally (there does seem to have been some restoration work done on the print used--mainly with Scotch tape).

I guess you really do have to be under 12 and never seen 1977's "Star Wars" to enjoy this one for what it is when viewing it for the first time. A little like raw cookie dough, it doesn't taste quite right when you're over 30, except in a setting of group intoxication. I also do not recommend seeing more than a few episodes at a single sitting, and there are 12.Gene Autry's old-timey Hollywood Western music, and his bandmates' yokel humor, are the two brightest notes in this cheesy tin-hat sci-fi serial. Everybody wears an exceptionally goofy hat, it seems, except Queen Tika in her relatively sedate tiara; even the silvery robots wear hats. Why the elevator is powered by a robot cranking it rather than being fully automated, perhaps belies the "advanced technology" of the Muranians (although they do have TV, a novelty in 1935). Why the Muranians thunder across the plain en masse on horseback, if they were hoping not to be discovered by surface folk, is another mystery. More baffling still is why the Muranians need breathing apparatus at the surface, while Gene Autry and his buddies need none when they are kidnapped to the underground kingdom. And (*SPOILER WARNING!!*) if the death ray, run amuck, can destroy the entire city, there's nothing stopping it from continuing to destroy everything in the beam's path until it reaches the Earth's surface -- which it doesn't. Note also that Queen Tika is the only female to be seen in this society. They must breed like bees.One of our party also notes that Gene seems to die more often than South Park's Kenny, only to be revived by the next episode. The Junior Thunder Riders, kids modeling themselves on people who at that point in the story are considered villains, look remarkably like the Klansmen riding to the ostensible rescue in "Birth of a Nation." A female championship trick rider is apparently only there to be the young-girl-in-jeopardy.If you are over 21, rent this one with some friends and plenty of beer and popcorn. It deserves to be shared, but do take a break now and then lest you hurt your brain.

Without going into points covered by earlier reviewers (with which I am in agreement), I really encourage anyone who enjoys old movies to see this one. I rate this one a "6" because of its unique blend of genres and because I enjoyed it.SOME TECHNICAL INFO:Unfortunately the DVD version is VERY bad. Source material was substandard and encoding was outrageous. They also cut the "Mascot" leaders from each chapter.I have this serial on quite old 16mm film and (splices, scratches and all) it's better than the DVD.You may actually have better luck purchasing this on VHS...I never thought I'd ever make THAT recommendation!